Complete Assembling of Massive Elements

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to an assembling whole, for the building of living places or for the area of toys. The whole comprises massive assembling bricks wearing lateral binding grooves, an upper binding groove and a lower binding groove designed for the assembling of the bricks, characterized in that the lateral groove is meant to bear a binding element uniting the bricks two by two. 
     The invention also relates to a lock key for the assembling of two bricks by means of the lateral binding grooves, comprising a strip for key locking which sticks an assembling shim to lateral grip walls inside the binding grooves. 
     The invention is made of wood or of any suitable material. The binding element is made of wood, of metal or of any suitable material.

The present invention relates to the area of construction, and more specifically to the building of solid-wood or glued-laminated timber cottages.

It relates more particularly to building elements allowing a quick and easy construction. It also relates to an assembling and lock key, which allows easy assembling and disassembling of the elements.

There is indeed a need for easy-to-use and economical building elements to achieve buildings such as sheds, gazebos, bungalows, cottages or low walls, in a small amount of time and without specific knowledge. The building has to be appropriately rigid; it also has to be easy to take apart and/or move, to be rebuilt somewhere else or in another way.

This building elements also have to be feasible in a scale model, for the purpose of a building game for children.

In the area of building games, the document DE-A-198 45 160 already described building blocks, approximately parallelepiped-shaped. The lateral sides of these blocks comprise a groove, which is meant to bear a coupling element binding the blocks two by two. Nothing is made to bind the blocks in the vertical direction, which necessitates to build layer by layer, with no stability between the layers.

This flaw is suppressed in the building game described in the document EP-A-0 911 070. These elements are cube-shaped, each side displaying a hole meant to bear a dowel, binding the adjacent cubes. A technical problem occurs when the user builds a wall of at least two rows of blocks, for he has to make each row separately before binding them to each other.

Out of the game area, the document EP-A-1 050 636 describes a modular system composed of wooden boards, horizontally set one on another and glued together. Such a system gives to the building a massive and definitive aspect, and is uneasy to carry out.

The document U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,302 describes an assembling system of wooden boards, using mortises and tenons. The binding is performed by means of plugs, making the system complex and difficult to carry out, except for a handy person or a wood worker.

The document EP-A-0 898 027 describes moulded building blocks, each of them wearing a male plug on the upper edge and a female plug on the lower edge. This system, designed for the building of a wall, needs the blocks to be cemented together.

The invention described in the previous patent FR 2 824 092, in the name of Rivière Camille Jim, had for an object to avoid the above mentioned flaws of the prior art, along with achieving the previously described aims. This invention related mainly to a whole of building elements comprising bricks, studs, architraves, frames, tie-beams and purlins. Each brick is parallelepiped-shaped with two opposite, parallel, approximately flat sides of defined height and length, separated by four successive sides forming the brick edge.

The present invention aims to improve significantly the previously described building blocks and to give them a general characteristic, allowing them to be used for the construction of every kind of house or every kind of residential or storage building. These building blocks may also be made in a scale model, for the purpose of a building game for children.

The present invention is characterized in that it comprises panels, which may be made by two ways : bricks of wood or of other material, or long-length glued-laminated timber. These panels are placed on a stringer named double wall plate. They are assembled together, in angles or end to end, by metal elements of triangular section and parallelepiped-shaped.

These metal elements of triangular section are assembled two by two on the hypotenuse side. They comprise on another side a prominent blade, designed to fit in a vertical cut in the bearing wall (panel) and providing a way of binding the panels. They also comprise a base plate and an upper plate. These metal elements are hollow and comprise one or more triangular metal plates, set at regular intervals to ensure the rigidity and solidity of the whole. Each triangular plate displays holes allowing cables or ducts to go through them, to ensure the fluid distribution in the building. These junction elements are assembled together by one or more binding means, diversely placed, which join two flat faces of the triangular elements. Binding means such as bolts go through the holes within the joined faces.

The metal element (stud) lies on the floor, ensuring the bearing of the building. The prominent blade comprises several holes, allowing the stud to be bolted to the panel, the former tightening the latter.

Both metal studs are pressed together and, before bolting, a sealing joint is set between the two elements. This joint may be a smooth rubber leaf or any other flexible joint allowing the bolting.

These studs of triangular section may be made of any rigid material, especially metals such as iron or aluminium.

The longitudinal blade set on one side of the triangular element plays an important role, for it fits into a cut at the edge of the stringers. After bolting, it ensures a strong binding of the panels, at right angle or end to end.

The invention is also characterized in that the stringers or wood pieces are assembled together by sliding, the grooves made in the wood bulk forming a dovetail which ensures the rigidity of the whole. The stringers also display a vertical cut at their edge, in which the blade of the triangular element will fit.

After attaching the two elements together, the stringer/blade whole will provide a particularly rigid binding means, ensuring the solidity of the building.

The elements of triangular section may also be inserted between two stringers to enhance their length. For this aim, the blade of a triangular element will be fitted into the vertical cut of a stringer; another stringer/triangular element whole will be symmetrically set against the first one and both will be attached face to face, by bolting or any other binding means.

The blade of each triangular element will comprise a binding means going through the stringer, to fix solidly the two stringers end to end.

The binding means will be preferably a bolt system, going through the blade by a hole designed for this purpose and tightened in two hollowings set in the external part of the stringers. The bolting system comprises a threaded rod, each end of which bearing a bolt, which tightens in the hollowing dug in the stringer. In this way, thanks to the double bolting system at each end of the blade, the length of the stringer may be enhanced without a risk of warping or torsion.

The building method according to the invention is also characterized by the setting at the base of the stringers of a hollow plinth or double wall plate. It is parallelepiped shaped and its upper side bears a dovetail, on which the lower part of the stringer comes to fit and is strongly maintained.

The double wall plate also comprises a lower part, which lies on a base set over a crawl space.

The double wall plate may show a flat face to the inside and a face displaying mouldings or other ornaments, to the outside. The double wall plates have the same measures as the bearing panels and may be of various lengths. The double wall plate comprises girts, whose interaxials are approximately between 50 and 80 cm long.

The thickness of the stringers may not be inferior to 5 cm.

For cold-climate areas, an insulating material, such as polystyrene or any other suitable material, may be glued inside the stringer and coated with wood by gluing, constituting a rigid whole.

The stringers (glued-laminated timber) or the wood pieces may display a billet-type cylindrical shape, inside and/or outside.

The main advantage of the building method according to the invention is that the hard-to perform mortise and tenon biding method has been suppressed, and replaced by a binding system such as bolting, which only needs holes and a threaded rod, easy to bolt to the junction element.

Another aspect of the invention relates to a method of wall building, using the previously described elements. This process is defined by the following: two or more stringers are set end to end to reach the desired wall length; the stringers are assembled by two elements of triangular section, bound flat face to flat face; the assembled stringers are fitted into the double wall plate by sliding the lower groove along the dovetail; the angle elements are fixed to the panels by inserting a side of the junction element in the hollowing of the panel; then, the double wall plate being firmly attached to the panel, another stringer, fitted in the same way, is placed on the first in order to form an angle and constitute the sides of a building.

To each side of the wall are then set the studs and/or architraves and/or frames.

Another aim of the invention is to provide convenient, cheap and easy-to-use systems for assembling/disassembling and binding/unbinding the bricks.

The aim of the invention is also to provide a system and its safe brick-assembling/disassembling process which do not essentially modify the conception of the bricks described in French Patent 2 824 092.

The aim of the invention is also to provide a system displaying a set of lock keys, which allows adaptation to different kinds of work and resistance to various mechanical or climatic stress.

The main aspect of the invention relates to an improved lock key. This key comprises at least two elements: a shim for brick assembling, which adapts to the assembling grooves of two bricks, and a strip for key locking, which blocks the shim in the grooves of the bricks.

In an embodiment of the invention, the lock key displays a special handhold for extraction.

The figures picture a particular embodiment of the invention:

FIG. 1 shows a sideways view of a brick according to the invention;

FIGS. 2 a, 2 b, 2 c, 2 d show different elements for brick assembling according to the invention;

FIG. 3 shows an upper view of two bricks assembled according to the invention;

FIG. 4 a shows a front view of a strip for key locking/unlocking;

FIG. 4 a shows a front view of a strip fitted in two bricks;

FIG. 5 shows a front view of a brick according to the invention;

FIGS. 6 a, 6 b, 6 c show three different steps of the assembling of two bricks according to the invention;

FIGS. 7 a, 7 b, 7 c picture different shapes for lock key assembling;

FIGS. 8 a, 8 b, 8 c picture different shapes for the assembling parts of bricks.

FIG. 1 shows a sideways view of a brick (10) which comprises on its lateral side a lateral binding groove (15). Into this groove may be fitted the fixing blade (6) of the studs of triangular section (4) (FIG. 2 a) or the strip for key locking (11) (FIG. 3). The brick (10) is oblong parallelepiped-shaped; its upper profile (5 a) is complementary to its lower profile (5 b) to allow an easy and strong fitting.

The assembling stud (4) in upper view (FIG. 2 a) comprises a hole (8) allowing cables or ducts do go through it. The stud section is for example right-angled-isosceles-triangle-shaped, to allow the assembling of two bricks in two different ways: at right angle (FIG. 2 b) for an angle stud, with a cornerite (91) which is set against the angle, or face to face, to set two bricks in line (FIG. 2 c). The triangular assembling stud (4) is attached to the brick, for example by means of a bolting system going through holes in the blade and in the brick bulk.

FIG. 2 d shows a particular kind of brick, designed for contact with the floor. It comprise a wall plate foot (94), on which is set an intermediary piece (92) whose profile is identical to the upper side of a standard brick. The whole displays a hollowing (93) into which a girt may fit, on which a stringer will then be set. The section of the stringer may notably be made of glued-laminated timber of Trio® type. The stringer then fits into the assembling stud (4).

FIG. 3 shows an upper view the binding of two bricks (10 a, 10 b) assembled according to the invention.

FIG. 5 shows a brick (10) whose front is approximately rectangular, its profile showing binding grooves (15, 31, 32), comprising female lateral binding grooves (15), a male upper binding groove (31) and a complementary female lower binding groove (32). FIGS. 7 a, 7 b and 7 c show different possible shapes for the lateral binding grooves (15), such as dovetail (FIG. 7 a) or rhomb (FIG. 7 b).

It is possible to use any shape allowing a grip (50) to keep the two bricks bound against the lateral parting forces. The assembling is made by means of a shim (12), whose shape is complementary to the one of the lateral binding groove (15).

As pictured by FIGS. 1, 7 a and 7 b, the invention provides a system for the assembling of two bricks (10 a, 10 b). This system consists in a lock key, constituted by an assembling shim (12) and a strip for key locking (11). According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the assembling shim may itself be composed of two elements, the external shape of each being complementary to a part of the internal shape of the grooves (15 a, 15 b) put together. The strip for key locking (11) fits into the centre of the assembling shim. It is preferably oblong rectangular-shaped and its upper outline is complementary to the one of the assembling shim, in the way that the fitting of the strip (11) into the shim will stick the shim against the grip walls (50), to bind the bricks together.

FIG. 4 a shows a front view of a strip for key locking/unlocking. In the centre and near its upper edge is notably made a hold hole (21). The purpose of this hole is to allow the easy removal of the strip in case of disassembling. This removal is done by means of a hook, which is fitted into the hole and allows the extraction of the strip (11) by pulling. A clearance is then made in the shim (12), which eases the removal of the last, unbinding the two bricks. This strip is a simple means of compensation to the straining of wood and of easy blocking/unblocking of the shim, as previously described.

FIG. 4 b shows a front view of a strip for key locking/unlocking assembling two bricks. It pictures the way in which the upper edge of the lock key fits in the upper edge of the male upper binding groove (31) of the assembled bricks. An opening is left between the two binding grooves (31), allowing access to the hold hole (21) of the strip (11).

FIGS. 6 a, 6 b, 6 c picture three successive phases of the assembling of two bricks, according to the invention. The disassembling of two bricks is done by a symmetrical way, along the successive phases 6 c, 6 b, 6 a. In phase 6 a, the bricks (10 a, 10 b) are put side by side. In phase 6 b, the assembling shim is set from the above into the lateral binding grooves (15 a, 15 b) of the bricks (10) to attach them together. In a particular embodiment of the invention, the assembling shim is made of two halves. This operation is then performed in two successive steps.

In phase 6 c, the operator fits the strip (11) into the assembling shim (12) and into the key groove (41). The last is a specific part, unoccupied by the shim (12), of the groove (15). The strip is also maintained by the key groove (41). This operation being done, the bricks are bound ant the operator may start another task. As described above, the disassembling is easily performed by means of a hook, extracting successively the strip (11) and the shim (12).

FIGS. 8 a, 8 b, 8 c picture three other kinds of male upper binding groove (31), such as dovetail (FIG. 8 a), sloping square (FIG. 8 b) or T-shaped (FIG. 8 c). For reasons of simplicity and economy of tools, the lateral binding grooves (15) are preferably shaped in the same way as the female lower binding grooves (32).

As a conclusion, the invention relates to a whole of elements for the building of living places, comprising massive assembling bricks. These bricks wear female lateral binding grooves (15), a male upper binding groove (31) and a complementary female lower binding groove (32) designed for assembling, characterized in that the lateral groove is meant to bear a binding element (11-12 or 4), laterally uniting the bricks two by two.

The bricks are also characterized in that they are made of wood, plastic, plaster, asbestos cement or any suitable material.

The invention also relates to a lock system characterized in that the binding grooves (15 a, 15 b) are shaped in dovetail, rhomb, bean or any shape suitable for a grip (50) to keep the two bricks bound against the lateral parting forces.

The invention also relates to a lock key for the assembling of two bricks (10 a, 10 b) by means of lateral binding grooves (15 a, 15 b), characterized in that it comprises a strip for key locking (11) which sticks an assembling shim (12) to lateral grip walls (50) inside the binding grooves (15 a, 15 b).

The lock key is also characterized in that the strip for key locking (11) wears a hold hole (21) to ease its removal by means of a hook.

The lock key is also characterized in that the strip for key locking (11) is oblong parallelepiped-shaped.

The lock key is also characterized in that the assembling shim (12) is made of wood and the strip for key locking (11) is made of metal.

The lock key is also characterized in that the assembling shim (12) is made of two different pieces, each of them fitting inside the lateral binding grooves (15 a, 15 b) of the assembled bricks.

The lock key is also characterized in that the upper edge of the strip (11) is flush with the upper edge of the upper binding groove (31) of the assembled bricks.

The invention also relates to a process for the assembling of two bricks (10 a, 10 b), characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

-   -   Step a: the bricks (10 a, 10 b) are put side by side;     -   Step b: the assembling shim is set from the above into the         lateral binding grooves (15 a, 15 b) of the bricks (10) to         attach them together;     -   Step c: the operator introduces the strip for key locking (11)         into the assembling shim (12).

Many variants, optionally combinable, may obviously be performed without leaving the scope of the invention as described above. 

1. An assembling whole for the building of living places, comprising massive assembling bricks wearing female lateral binding grooves, a male upper binding groove and a female lower binding groove designed for the assembling of bricks, wherein the lateral groove bears a binding element laterally uniting the bricks two by two.
 2. An assembling whole of claim 1, wherein the bricks are made of a member selected from the group consisting of wood, plastic, plaster and asbestos cement.
 3. An assembling whole of claim 1, wherein the binding grooves are shaped as a member selected from the group consisting of dovetail, rhomb, bean and any shape suitable for a grip to keep the two bricks bound against the lateral parting forces.
 4. An assembling whole of claim 1, wherein the binding element is a lock key, comprising a strip for key locking which sticks an assembling shim to lateral grip walls inside the binding grooves.
 5. A lock key for the binding of two bricks of claim 4, wherein the strip for key locking wears a hold hole to ease its removal by means of a hook.
 6. A lock key for the binding of two bricks of claim 4, wherein the strip for key locking is oblong parallelepiped-shaped.
 7. A lock key for the binding of two bricks of claim 4, wherein the upper edge of the strip is flush with the upper edge of the upper binding groove of the assembled bricks.
 8. An assembling whole of claim 1, wherein the binding element is a stud of triangular section, provided with a fixing blade, to be able to bind two bricks edge to edge or at right angle.
 9. A binding element for the assembling of two bricks of claim 1, wherein it is made of wood or of metal.
 10. A process for the assembling of two bricks comprising the following steps: Step a: putting the two bricks side by side; Step b: setting the assembling shim from the above into the lateral binding grooves of the bricks to attach them together; and Step c: introducing the strip for key locking into the assembling shim. 